Saturday Surprise — SILOS!!!

Posted on by under Bits 'n Pieces, Global Issues, Saturday Surprise

This …

… is a grain silo.  And these …

… are also grain silos.

🥱  Pretty boring, right?  I mean … a structure whose only purpose is to store grain … what’s to get excited about.  Function over form, yes?  Well … in Australia, farmers and artists have managed to combine form and function and … WOW!  Take a look …

This one is located in Colbinabbin, Victoria, and was painted by Tim Bowtell over the course of 8 weeks in 2020 at the beginning of the Covid pandemic.  Look at the detail …

Or what about this one, the first in Victoria in the town of Brim …

… painted in January 2016 by Guido van Helten.  Look at the detail … isn’t it amazing?

This next one is in Kaniva, Victoria, and was painted by David Lee Pereira and his assistant, Jason Parker, completed in October 2020 …

This depicts the Australian Hobby Bird, a member of the falcon family.  To the left of the bird is the plains sun orchid with the salmon/pink sun orchid on the right.

And this next one … touches the heart …

It is an image of New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern embracing a Muslim woman after the Christchurch mosque attacks resonated around the world in April 2019.  The silo was painted by Loretta Lizzio in May 2019 and is located in Brunswick, Victoria.

This last one is located in Avoca, Victoria and was completed last year as the 47th in Australia’s Painted Silo Art Collection.

These are but a few of the beautifully painted silos in Australia, but I hope you’ll take a look at some of the rest of them on the Victorian Silo Art website that was so kindly sent to me by my Australian artist friend, Anne Lawson of Anne Lawson’s Art.  Thank you so much for pointing me in this direction, Anne!

And now, my friends, go forth and have a wonderful weekend!

35 thoughts on “Saturday Surprise — SILOS!!!”

  1. Pingback: A tiny adventure in Brunswick – Anne Lawson Art

  2. I am glad you liked them Jill. They are quite wonderful. And they have created tourist opportunities for the towns. There are silo trails through these little country towns. I didn’t know about the Jacinda Ardern one ~ Brunswick is close to me, so I will have to find out where it is.

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    • Indeed, I loved them and I thank you again, my friend, for sharing them with me! Oh yes, I do hope you are able to see the one with Jacinda Ardern … that one really touched my heart!

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  5. Living on the Canadian Priries we have grain silos everywhere. Empty canvasses just waiting to be glorified. How to get Canadian farmers to follow suit. And maybe they could paint the 90,000 dead pumpjacks we have too. Make them to look like T Rexes or something.

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    • Hmmmm … sounds like a project for you and Gail! The farmers didn’t do the murals … though I suppose they must have consented … but local artists did! I have to ask … what are ‘pumpjacks’?

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      • Pumpjacks are oil rigs that don’t need people to watch over them. Huge areas of Alberta have oilfields deep under them. Oil companies lease a patch of ground from a farmer, put a pumpjack on it, and pump out all the oil. They pay the farmer rent and a small % of the oil they take. When oil is booming everyone profits (except the Earth). But eventially the oil runs out. The oil companies are supposed to dismantle the pumpjacks and clean up the soil they stood on. But instead they declare bamkruptcy, say they cannot afford to clean up, change their name, start a new company and do it all over again. The present estimate is there are 90,000 dead pumpjeacks dotting the land in Alberta alone. And the government doesn’t care about dead pumpjacks, only about selling new leases. The farmers never get their land back to grow crops on, and refuse to clean up their own land because it states on the lease the oil company is responsible for that. Unless the government sides with the farmers the number of dead pumpjacks will continue to increase. But our Conservative government sides with the oil companies. And Alberta is a Conservative province, akin to Alabama or Texas.

        https://www.google.com/search?q=pumpjack&oq=pumpjack&aqs=chrome..69i57j46i175i199i512j0i512l6.19187j0j8&client=tablet-android-samsung-nf-rev1&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8#imgrc=QmfW–uqghb8IMthem.

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  14. Did I just say I had wonderful spatial vision. Not when it comes to art. For starters I cannot draw a face, and if I do the body is never in proper proportion. But ask me to string words in a line and come out with meaning, no problem…

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    • I’m glad you enjoyed it! I hope you’re having a wonderful weekend as well … mine has been relatively quiet, as Chris had a band function this afternoon and was gone much of the day. For some reason, though, I kept falling asleep and wasn’t able to accomplish much.
      Cwtch

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